A kitchen renovation in Ontario costs roughly $90 to $345 per square foot. Where you land depends on three things: your region, the finish level, and how much the layout changes. A 200 square foot kitchen at a premium finish runs about $32,000 in Listowel and about $40,000 in the GTA. Moving plumbing or removing a structural wall adds to that.
By region and finish
Kitchen rates per square foot
| Service area | standard | premium | luxury |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto & GTA | $115/ft² | $200/ft² | $345/ft² |
| Hamilton & Niagara | $110/ft² | $190/ft² | $330/ft² |
| Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge & Guelph | $105/ft² | $180/ft² | $310/ft² |
| Listowel & Perth County | $90/ft² | $160/ft² | $275/ft² |
| Other Southwestern Ontario | $100/ft² | $170/ft² | $295/ft² |
Rates are the same figures behind our calculators. Standard is a straightforward refit, premium is custom cabinetry and stone, luxury is high-end appliances and millwork.
What moves the price
Three cost drivers
- Layout changes. Keeping plumbing and walls in place is the cheapest path. Moving the sink or opening a wall to the living room adds trades and permits.
- Cabinetry. Stock to semi-custom to full custom is the single biggest line item in most kitchens.
- Appliances and stone. The jump from standard to luxury is mostly here.
Second opinion
Why Reddit answers range from $20,000 to $150,000
Search this question on Reddit, for example r/TorontoRealEstate: “Rough cost of renovation, kitchen” or “Estimate cost of renovating kitchen in Scarborough”, and the numbers people report are all over the map, from IKEA refits in the low tens of thousands to full custom kitchens well past $100,000. The spread is real, but it is not useful, because posters rarely say where they live, what finish level they bought, or whether the layout changed.
Those three variables are the whole answer. Hold them steady and the range tightens to the per-square-foot rates in the table above. The other consistent Reddit take, that cabinetry is the biggest single line item, matches what we see on real projects. Before you post your own quote for strangers to judge, run it through our kitchen renovation calculator and see where it lands against Ontario rates.
Your kitchen
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Enter your square footage and finish level in the calculator for a cost range and the resale value the project adds.
Open the kitchen renovation calculatorRelated
Keep reading
See how to increase your home price for where a kitchen ranks against other projects, or kitchen renovation in Listowel for how we run the work.